We love to read the good and the bad others have written about their experience or a product.

As a business owner, there are a couple challenges when it comes to reviews.

How do you get your happy customers to write more reviews?

How can you handle negative reviews?

What can you do to leverage these reviews into additional business?

Here are some fun statistics from this episode:

"Consumer reviews are trusted 12x more than descriptions published by the marketer."

"79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation from a friend or family member."

"7 out of 10 consumers will return to a business if their concern is addressed quickly."

Doren Aldana is an expert when it comes to online reviews and testimonials. He is the Founder of MyTestimonialEngine.com which is the #1 software for helping local businesses collect and share reviews. His unique approach to collecting and managing online reviews helps businesses attract more customers.

Here are some of the talking points from our interview:

The importance of customer reviews for customer service and search rankings

Why it is so important for a business to actively seek customer reviews and testimonials

How to get your customers to take action and leave a review

Why you should consider using text messaging to collect reviews

Ways to address negative reviews before they are published on the Internet

The reason have a review collection system is crucial to being successful

How to get more referrals from your online reviews

Exclusive Offer to Neon Noise Listeners

Doren has provided The Ultimate Testimonial Toolkit to all Neon Noise listeners. To access, visit the link below.

Resources

Transcript

00:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Neon Noise Podcast, your home for learning ways to attract more traffic to your websites, generate more leads, convert more leads into customers, and build stronger relationships with your customers. And now, your hosts, Justin Johnson and Ken Franzen.

00:15 Justin Johnson: Hey, hey, hey, Neon Noise nation. Welcome to the Neon Noise podcast where we decode marketing and sales topics to help you grow your business. I am Justin Johnson. And with me, I have my co-host, Ken Franzen. Ken, what's going on today?

00:28 Ken Franzen: Not too much, Justin. How is everything down there in sunny Florida?

00:33 JJ: Sunny Florida is good. Weather is getting nice and not 95 degrees every day, so can't complain too much about that at all. I am excited to speak with our featured guest today. He has a unique approach for using testimonials to attract more clients. We will be speaking with Doren Aldana. He is the CEO and president of mortgagemarketingcoach.com and the founder of Testimonial Engine, which is a number one software for helping local businesses collect and share client reviews on auto pilot. Since 2005, Doren has been dedicated to helping business owners attract more clients with less effort, regardless of marking conditions. His life mission is to inspire and equip people to create an extraordinary life full of passion, purpose, and prosperity. His message is the power of testimonials and online reviews to help your business and the speed of trust. This is gonna be a great conversation today. Doren, welcome to Neon Noise.

01:38 JJ: Absolutely. Hey, Doren, do me a favor and fill in the blanks in anything I may have missed.

01:43 DA: Dude, you did great. If anything else, I guess I could have paid you a little bit more bribe money so you could have fluffed it up a little bit more, [laughter] but we're good for now.

01:51 JJ: Awesome. Awesome, awesome.

01:53 KF: Hey, Doren, why don't you give us a little background on how you got to where you are today and this role of both Mortgage Marketing Coach and the Testimonial Engine?

02:02 DA: Yeah. Well I guess it all started way back. I was age six and it was my birthday, and my mom wanted to surprise me. So, she took me in the car, she said, "I have a big surprise for you." And, of course, I'm all on pins and needles, stoked to see what the surprise is. And next thing we know, we show up at the coliseum and Michael Jackson is performing live at the coliseum. I'm so over the moon jacked because he was my hero. And she went out of the vehicle and did her thing and came back with this distraught, despondent look in her face. She said, "I'm so sorry, son, I didn't get tickets and the scalpers are charging more than I can afford. I'm so sorry." And she handed me this shirt that was a Michael Jackson shirt. Any other day, I would have been over the moon jacked about having the shirt, but in that moment, I was just devastated and something inside of me just cried out. I said, "I'm not gonna live like this. When I grow up, I'm gonna find a way to not have to say, 'We can't afford it.'" And so little did my mom know she was actually part of creating my path in life. And so I decided, at a very young age, I was gonna be an entrepreneur of some kind.

03:08 DA: And I started selling soaps, potions, and lotions to people who didn't want it, couldn't afford it at a young age, doing Amway. And then, of course, the journey convoluted into all kinds of different gigs and projects. But I learned along the way that I'm not really mentally fit to work for anybody, and that I'm certified, bonafide, qualified unemployable, so I've just really caught a fire of passion for entrepreneurship. And then I learned, when I was selling education savings plans, that, as I was bumming around town, meeting different parents, talking about investing for their kid's future, that there's this thing that I need to learn called salesmanship and also mindset. And I burned through a CD set from Anthony Robbins called Unleash the Power Within. And it was that seed that was planted in my heart that got me thinking, "Man, I wanna be a coach. I love helping people create breakthroughs. I love creating breakthroughs in my own life. I love helping out other people create breakthroughs."

04:02 DA: So I started my coaching company, Power of Choice Coaching, back in 2003, really born out of that passion to help people create breakthroughs. And we've been growing and going ever since. But I realized very early in the game as a coach that if I don't learn this marketing thing I'm gonna have skinny kids, so I figured I should probably make this a ravenous study and really pursue it passionately and not just be a dabbler but be a master. So I started to study marketing ferociously. And then a client referred me to his buddy who was a mortgage professional at a bank. He was on salary, plus a little commish. He was tired of the humdrum, glass ceiling salary, no upside potential, and he decided to take the plunge into the unknown realm called "you eat what you kill," 100% commission. So he was kind of freaked out and excited at the same time, but he decided to take the plunge.

04:52 DA: And, of course, our paths crossed just at that opportune time. He actually hired me to help him make that transition, and I started to share some of the things I was learning with marketing. Make a long story short, we tripled the money he made at the bank within about eight months. And within a few years, he was doing multiple millions in revenue and certainly well over a million in profit. And I guess that got me thinking, "Maybe I should start doing this with other mortgage pros." So I started really nichifying myself with mortgage professionals. And then, of course, things started to morph into helping them on all different fronts with marketing. And it took a little while, maybe about five years, but the reviews and testimonials thing really started to come on the scene as Google started to change their algorithm. And local reviews, through various review sites, became more paramount and mission critical.

05:46 DA: So then I started another company called True Trust Marketing that's a turnkey solution that automates the process of getting reviews and getting them on review sites like Google, Yelp, etcetera, and systematizing the method by which business owners can get them, as well as quarantine negative reviews so they don't tarnish their reputation online. So that's a little smattering of my convoluted journey, as things progressed over the years.

06:11 KF: Very cool. So, reviews and testimonials are Kind of a... I guess they're not a new topic, they've been around for a long time, especially testimonials. But as consumers, we rely on these reviews. I'm thinking of how I shop for products on the Amazon, but then when I look for services and I'm doing a Google search, you made mention how reviews have an affect on the positioning of local listings, and we use Google for the example. And let's chat a little bit. Why is it important, why should a business bother actively seeking reviews and testimonials from their customers?

06:49 DA: Well, I think intuitively your audience already knows the answer to that because chances are, in the last month, they've patronized a restaurant that they went to because of Yelp reviews, or they purchased something on Amazon as a result of Amazon reviews, or they purchased an audio on iTunes because of its great reviews or a movie on iTunes or Netflix because of reviews. You get the idea. Everywhere we're going in life, we're trying to mitigate the risk of getting a lemon, buyer's remorse. We hate making a mistake, especially if it impacts other people, our friends, our family, people who are partaking in that purchase with us. So we're doing all we can to try and avoid buyer's remorse, avoid buying a lemon and feeling stupid or embarrassed or just crappy that we should have made this choice but instead we made that choice.

07:38 DA: So reviews are a really powerful way to help consumers avoid that pain of remorse and get into the pleasure of really hitting the sweet spot and finding a vendor, a company that is legit, that delivers in spades what they promise, and that provides an excellent experience for the customer or client, or patient. So there's actually some phenomenal statistics on this that are pretty mind-blowing. For example, 79% of customers or consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation from a friend or family member. Marinate your mind on that for a moment. That's almost eight out of 10 people deem online reviews as just as trustworthy, just as influential in their buying criteria and decision-making process as a personal recommendation from a friend or family member.

08:28 JJ: That's a big number.

08:29 DA: Additionally, if you think that's significant, check this out, consumer reviews are trusted 12 times more than any descriptions published by the marketer. In other words, what you say about you doesn't mean jack. It's what your clients say about you that's believed 12 times more than anything you'll say about you. So whether you're doing online marketing or whether you're a local business, wanting to dominate your local market, reviews are becoming more and more mission critical, and that's precisely why these various search engines and certainly Google is making reviews as a prerequisite, not just to getting top rankings, but more importantly you get top positioning.

09:08 DA: Because, as you probably noticed on a Google search for local vendors, whether it be a pizza joint or whether it be a financial planner or realtor, mortgage professional, spa, whatever it might be, there's what's called three pack in the SEO world, that's what we call it, three pack. It's the top three vendors on that Google map. And you'll notice that the ones that get the most clicks, calls and cash, aren't necessarily the top on the list. They're the ones with the best positioning, with the most amount of five-star reviews, and their position is the only logical choice because they've got a better reputation than any of the other competitors. And that's the positioning that each and every person listening to this podcast wants. You wanna become the preeminent provider in your market. This position is irreplaceable, indispensable, and the only logical choice. Does that makes sense, guys?

10:00 KF: Oh, it makes absolute sense, for sure. Now, one of the big challenges that a lot of business owners, entrepreneurs face is getting the reviews themselves. I hear them say, "I ask people, the customers, when I finish a job... " Let's say it's a roofing contract [10:16] ____ "I finished their job," and they say, "Hey great, we enjoyed it," kinda that honeymoon phase when everyone's happy, the project's freshly done, the roof looks immaculate, they've cleaned up [10:26] ____ everything around the landscape, and the homeowner is just tickled pink, prime opportunity to get a review, a raving review from that customer. And the business owner says, "Hey, I asked them, but they didn't go do it." So what are some ways that you can go about actually having the customer take action and submit a review?

10:48 DA: That's a great question. The first step is to have a system for followup because, frankly, one ask generally is not enough. Especially if you're asking by email, 'cause let's face it, we get an avalanche of emails every day. So, just because they didn't respond, it doesn't mean they don't like you or they didn't like the service. It's just that they got swamped with a bunch of other emails and then they forgot about it, or they didn't even see it, or it got stuck in the spam filter, who knows what else. So you got to have a system for following up to non-responders. Ideally, not something that's relying on your whim, your motivation because, if it is, you're [11:19] ____, and you don't have a real business, you have a glorified job. So you gotta have a system that follows up for people who don't respond. That's the first thing. Second thing is you probably wanna consider using text messaging in conjunction with email because text messaging is a lot harder to ignore than email. So that's one of the cool things about our system, we use texting and email, so that, for the hard eggs to crack that aren't responding to email, we can hit 'em up with a little text message, and that usually does the trick.

11:48 DA: Additionally, people who don't have a Google account, a Gmail account, a Yelp account, or whatever platform that you're asking for review on, generally, even if they love you and they think you're the best thing since sliced bread and you can walk on water, they're not gonna do back flips and create an account just to submit a review to you. And if you're pigeonholing them to a particular platform like Google or Yelp, you're alienating all the non-account holders, and that's gonna dramatically suppress response. So it's much better to make it easy breezy, lemon squeezy to submit a review by not requiring an account. Just give them an opportunity to give you a review first, and have anybody and everybody available and in a position to do so without them having to create an account first as a prerequisite.

12:35 DA: And then the cool thing about that is, when you do that, you're able to discern in advance whether it's positive or negative before you ask for the review because on the thank you page and in the thank you email that's sent out after they give the review, if it's positive, you can ask them to share it with the world, and if it's negative, you can quarantine it so it acts like a firewall, and we can do damage control, empathize with them, find out what went wrong, and hopefully turn that negative into a positive because studies show that seven out of 10 consumers will return to a business if their concern is resolved quickly. So speed is really the name of the game. You wanna be all over it like white on rice and turn 'em around. But you don't wanna ask a Negative Nelly to post on your Google because, once you get that blemish on to your Google site, it's virtually impossible to remove it. So you wanna discern if they're positive or negative before you ask them to share with the world, and that's where having a system like this really helps where you can get maximum number of reviews, you can leverage those reviews on multiple different platforms and multiple different media, which we'll talk about in a moment, and you can quarantine negative reviews. Does that make sense?

13:40 JJ: Love that.

13:41 KF: For sure. And it's nice to be able to quarantine that negative, giving the opportunity to address that issue because, you're right, a bad experience is also an opportunity to make a wrong a right. And I like that number, seven out of 10, I tend to agree with that, that they'll return if you're able to address and acknowledge their concern quickly and efficiently, right?

14:05 DA: Yeah. And it's not just the repeat business that's on table, it's also referral business. So if you're able to turn 'em around and show 'em your true character by going above and beyond the call of duty to make things right with them, and the means by which you do that with empathy, and with promptness and professionalism. If you wow them in how you rectify that situation, they're even more likely to refer you. So there's all kinds of repeat referral business profit potential there when you do what's right, and obviously the key to that is being timely as well as being very much committed to doing all you can to rectify the situation.

14:45 KF: Talk to us a little bit about your process, mytestimonialengine.com. The system that you describe, I'm guessing, is that of your system on that website. Can you take us through how that works, what is... 'Cause it sounds a little bit more involved and probably a little bit more effective than a verbal ask or even an email ask. And I agree with you completely with the fact if they don't own an account on the platform you're trying to direct them to that you're creating another barrier for them to submit that review. So talk to us on how My Testimonial Engine works in the system that's in place there and how it's more effective than my described in effect [15:29] ____.

15:30 DA: Sure. Well, again, the first step is to ask. So you wanna ask at the right time. You had it nailed. You wanna ask during that honeymoon season when they're feeling most delighted and elated with the service. I call it the MMS, the moment of maximum satisfaction. So you're gonna send a text or an email. It's just something as simple as, "How did we do? Give us a review." And it doesn't have to be complicated. And then they click the link, and they go to what's called a review capture page. And on that review capture page, it's gonna have a field for them to enter their name, their email. Chances are you're gonna have all their data already, their phone number or whatnot. If you wanna capture more data, by all means, you can put in more fields, but just keep in mind the more fields you put in, the more you're gonna suppress response.

16:10 DA: So usually it's best to just have name, email, a place for them to indicate their degree of positive sentiment with their number of stars out of five, five being the highest, and then a place for them to type in a short or verbose text-based testimonial. And then there'll be a little place where you'll also have them be clear the fact that when they submit this, it's giving them consent... Or it's giving you consent rather to publish that review in your marketing. And when they press the submit button, if it's four stars and above, it's considered a positive review. So it's gonna go to what's called a positive review thank you page. And it's gonna have a video up there. You can either have your own custom video or one of our stock videos. For example, it'd say something like, "Thank you so much for the positive review. So glad that we've met or exceeded your expectations. If you'd be so kind as to copy and paste that positive review," you see it down there, "go ahead and copy and paste that review on these other review sites below this video, that'd be much appreciated. It means all the world to us that we're doing a good job for you, and if you could do that, we'd really appreciate it." Something like that.

17:18 DA: And, of course, then they'll have icons for the different review sites, Google, Yelp, Facebook. If you're in a niche that... You have niche-specific sites like travel it would be Trip Advisor, in real estate it would be Zillow. So there's lots of niche-specific review sites you can put on there as well. You're gonna give about three to four examples of different things that they can click on. Google's always at the top 'cause that's the 8,000-pound gorilla and you definitely wanna dominate on Google, especially if you're a local business. And so, because you're giving them multiple options, they're more likely to do something as opposed to nothing because you've given them multiple options, and chances are they have an account for at least one of them.

17:57 DA: Now, if it's negative, it sends them to a quarantine page where it says, "Sorry, you had a bad experience. Tell us about what happened and how we can improve. We're gonna do all that we can to rectify the situation as soon as possible." And so it's based on empathy, compassion, caring, curiosity. And that's where they submit their negative review and all that's kept 100% private and confidential. Meanwhile, there's also thank you emails both in the positive or negative context that gets sent out that ask them to do the same thing, to give feedback, as well as, if it's positive, to share it with the world on these review sites.

18:35 DA: Additionally, if you thought we were good to go and happy with just what we talked about so far, we ain't done. We've just begun. There's another thing we can do, a couple more things we can do to squeeze profit out of that juicy fruit, as much profit nectar as possible. And one of the things we can do is we can auto feed the positive reviews on to your social media channels, Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, so that all your fans and followers are seeing these positive reviews from your happy clients come through in their newsfeed on these channels, yet another reminder, you're awesome, you're legit, and that you're the best provider in your respective market. And then we can also auto feed those positive reviews on your website. So, we're talking right now, you happen to get a positive review, boom, instantly shows up in your website, nothing else to do. Just set it and forget it, and it auto populates all your positive reviews in real time. How cool is that?

19:36 JJ: Very cool.

19:37 KF: No that's great system. What's the path like for someone that has a negative review? So I'm thinking of this, and this is a hypothetical I'm throwing out there, a curve ball, if you will. But if I go to a restaurant and have bad review, or I have a bad experience, excuse me, and I want to leave an unfavorable review for them, and I go through the link that is sent to me after my experience, and I see that my review's not appearing on Yelp or Google Plus or... Because obviously it's not gonna filter through, directly through. It's going to... And you do try to address it. But let's just say it's one of those instances where it was just a bad experience. There was two cooks off, and it was an awful experience and I'm not really content. I wanna touch on how to handle those negative reviews here in a second, but what's the likelihood or how often does that person then go above and beyond it directly to the platforms themselves? There's nothing really to safeguard against that, right?

20:49 DA: Yeah. Well, the way to safeguard it is timeliness. The more prompt you are in eliciting feedback, the less likely they're gonna do it on their own accord. Especially if they're disgruntled and they're not happy with the service or the experience, they're more likely to give a bad review immediately, versus a week from now or a month from now. So if you can elicit that feedback from them right away when the bill is, for example, given to the customer with a card that says, "How did we do? Please review us," and maybe a little incentive like, "Review us and have a chance to win a $100 gift certificate," and once a month, the gift certificate's given to people who reviewed for that month, for example, so it gives people a little bit of an ethical bribe to give that review. And because it's given at the moment when the bill is given, they're more likely to do it, 'cause it's all the principle of strike while the iron is hot, right?

21:44 KF: Sure.

21:45 DA: So now, they've submitted the review, and what the operations manager or the business owner is gonna wanna do when that complaint comes in, they're gonna be notified by text and/or email that a complaint has been submitted. So they're gonna wanna be all over that like white on rice and contact them. Ideally there'd be an email that goes out automatically that says, "So sorry you had a bad experience. Here's a link to download a complimentary dinner for two. We wanna make it right, we wanna make it up to you, and we're committed to doing whatever it takes to do so. So here's a complementary gift certificate. You can download or print it up. Come in, and we'll make it right. We'll make it up to you." And now all of the sudden is you've given them a way by which they can get it off their chest. It's quarantined, so it's only for your own internal purposes.

22:33 DA: You can bring that information to your staff meetings so that you have feedback straight from the street, from the customers, people who are paying the bills, so that you can use that to improve policy, procedure, protocol, and improve the standard by which the team is delivering the service. And at the same time, the customer's feeling great because they feel heard. Ideally, someone would be calling them as well and seeing if there's anything else they can do, reminding them, "Hey, we sent you an email with the gift certificate. We'd love to have you back and make it right. We promise you we'll make it right to you," and inviting them to make a reservation to come back.

23:12 DA: So, all of a sudden you're taking a negative and you're turning into a positive 'cause you're improving the policy, procedure, protocol of the team. You're getting feedback for improvement, and you're also taking a disgruntled customer and hopefully turning 'em around and turning them into an evangelist that brings friends and family, and uses that even as a story. "I came in. It was a terrible experience. I actually complained, and you know what they did, they sent me a gift certificate. And then they called and they invited me to make a reservation. And when I came in, I got a VIP, golden glove service. It was absolutely extraordinary. And you really need to check these guys out. These guys are amazing." All of a sudden, the negative turns into a positive, a breakdown turns into a breakthrough.

23:54 KF: I like it. And the key, I think, that I'm seeing here is you're proactively putting the opportunity for submitting the review in front of them rather than leaving it to chance that they go out and do it somewhere else. You're taking control of that situation.

24:10 DA: Yeah. When's the last time you went to a restaurant and they actually elicited feedback at the time they gave you the bill? I don't recollect one time.

24:18 JJ: Not very often.

24:18 DA: I've never even had one time where they've done it. And I go take my wifey out for dinner pretty much every week for date night.

24:26 KF: What about... So we talked about getting the reviews through your system. What about the sites, Google, Yelp, they're copying and pasting. How often or how much of a conversion do you see people copying and pasting in that suggested step of the thank you, "Hey, you had a great review. If you would, please copy, paste these over to the other sites?" Is that the best way you're finding to get these out to the the actual platforms themselves? Are there other suggestions you have?

24:56 DA: Yeah. The key in this, and this is really the key in business in general, is follow up. You've heard the saying, "Fortune is in the followup," and this is certainly no exception. So obviously, there'll be different varying degrees of responsiveness, depending on how well you have indoctrinated your people and how emphatically ecstatic your clients or patients or customers are with who you are and what you represent, and how've you made a difference in their lives. So, a lot of those factors will play into how responsive they are. Generally, there'll be about a 20% conversion from getting the positive review to getting them on to key review sites, like Google, Yelp, Facebook. However, followup can make a massive difference. So we have something called special notification emails. There's obviously a followup email and a thank you page that they're directed to immediately. So you'll get about 20% right off the bat.

25:47 DA: But then if you wanna squeeze as much profit, producing nectar out of the orange as possible, what we wanna do is do follow up. So, we can send out a special notification email, which is basically like a broadcast email, and ask them to go ahead and do that step. And the cool thing is we can data merge the positive review they already submitted into that email so they don't have to try and remember what the heck they said. We can data merge it right in there, and so all they have to do is just copy and paste it on whatever review site they want. And every time you send out one of those followups, you're gonna get a higher uptake in response. So you might get 20% on the first wave, another 10% on the second wave, another seven or eight or nine or 10% on the third wave. And every time you ask, you get a few more people jumping off the fence and doing it.

26:33 KF: Very cool. That frequency makes a difference then.

26:36 DA: Yeah. And then you could do contests, too. You can have a special video on the positive review thank you page and say, "Hey, we're doing a contest at the end of each month. When you give us a review on Google, 'cause Google is the most important review site for us to share what we do with the world, if you'll be so kind as to give us a review on Google, then you're gonna get a surprise gift in this little envelope. I'm super stoked to send it out to you. I think you'll dig it. In addition to that, your name will be entered into a draw to win X, Y, Z super galactic prize, and we give that out every month to a winner from the draw." So if you do something like that, you'll obviously dramatically improve response rate as well because you're giving them, again, that ethical bribe, that enticement to get in and especially hit the review site that matters most to your business.

27:24 JJ: Very cool.

27:25 KF: I think it's important to point out though the... Getting positive reviews is definitely beneficial for increasing your exposure in the local search per the algorithm and the three pack, as you've described for our listeners, and one of the most advantageous things of getting reviews is to combat that potential, maybe inevitable negative review that you have, that will come through directly on. So for instance, if you're that roofing company and you're not active in getting reviews from your customers, and you have zero reviews, and suddenly you have a bad experience and someone goes directly to Google and leaves you a one star, your average is that one-star review. One review with one star average, and that's what is displayed for your business. And by not having a cluster of four or five-star reviews to help bring that average up, that one star really, really, really has a huge impact, that one single bad experience. I've seen a lot of times with businesses where they just don't have reviews. They only have one really bad review and that's their...

28:47 DA: Reputation.

[chuckle]

28:49 KF: Exactly, online. So it's important really to combat that. And this seems like a very good tool system, which, I think, is the key here is it's a system that sounds pretty easy to manage. What's the setup like for getting started with your platform?

29:07 DA: Oh, it's super easy breezy. It's literally just a 20-minute, 30-minute meeting with one of our setup specialists. They help you press the buttons and pull the levers and toggle the knobs to customize it to your satisfaction, and then you upload your client list to the system and literally within minutes you got great reviews flying into your inbox. Unless you suck, then obviously there's not much we can do to help you.

[laughter]

29:29 KF: There's nothing wrong with being honest, right?

[chuckle]

29:31 DA: Exactly. But one of the best ways to overcome the negative review is an avalanche of positive reviews. So you make a great point. A negative review can have a massive impact on your digital presence and certainly, your online reputation. And since they make it impossible to remove those blemishes, the only way to really overcome it is just to have a massive amount of positive reviews. The more, the better. And there comes a point where the client or the prospective client looks at the negative review and then looks at the overwhelming amount of positive reviews, and say, "Oh, that must have been just a Negative Nelly. I'm not gonna listen to that person. Take it with a grain of salt. Look at all these amazing rave reviews from the lion's share of the people reviewing. I'm gonna go with that sentiment. This company is legit. Let's pull the trigger."

30:15 KF: I do that. I look at... And I'm sure I'm not the only one that'll go and say, "Okay. Let's see what the one star said real quick." And I'll look, and I'll say, "Yeah. It sounds like they had a bad day, and there's way more positive than negative here." So you kind of, like you said, "Take it with a grain of salt." Now, what about... You talk about using reviews to get more referrals. How does that work?

30:39 DA: Well, that's a really cool strategy that hardly any business owner ever thinks about. But if you really connect the dots on it, it's so head-slapping-ly simple and intuitive. It's crazy that more business owners don't connect the dots between reviews and referrals, 'cause think about it, who better to give you a referral than someone who just gave you a five-star review. That's your raving fan, right?

31:03 KF: Sure.

31:04 DA: So, it makes sense, when you think about. Dang, I should launch a dedicated referral attraction campaign to my raving fans. Those are the people who are most likely to give me referrals." And whether you're a restauranteur, or whether you're a mortgage professional, a realtor, owner of spa, massage therapist, financial planner, you name it, your raving fans are the people who are most likely to give you a referral. So why not go after those people, and ask them for referrals, and treat 'em special? So, I developed the killer effective letter called "The Magic Wand Letter," and it's designed to go out via snail mail, direct mail to your raving fans. And enclosed in the envelope is a toy magic wand, so it's lumpy. So their curiosity gets the best of them. They have to open it, because what the hell is in there, right? They have to find out.

31:51 KF: Sure.

31:52 DA: They open up the letter, out pops the magic wand, so at least their kids have something to fight over for the day.

[laughter]

32:01 JJ: Send me three, please.

32:01 DA: You get to spread the love and spread the blessing. And then the headline says, "I wish... I wish... Poof. I could have more clients like you." Cheesy, right? But, hey, it'll put more cheese in your wallet, so who cares? You can be...

32:14 KF: Exactly.

32:15 DA: Cool and broke or cheesy and rich. I don't know about you, but I prefer to be cheesy and rich. And so...

32:19 KF: Absolutely.

32:20 DA: The whole premise of the letter is that you think the client is awesome, you wish you could have other awesome clients just like them, and perhaps they can make your wish come true by sending you referrals. And then you follow up by phone and ask for the referral. Just ask for a couple of minutes to brainstorm, to see who in the world might be in need of your product or service, and just activate their mental Rolodex to see who you can help. And if you do that, I'll tell you, you'll have more referrals you've ever received in your business, in your entire career. Case in point, I had a client who sent out 50 of these letters to his raving fans. He brought in 18 Gs in revenue, cost him 200 bucks. How's that for an ROI?

33:01 JJ: Awesome.

33:02 KF: A I think a... That's a no-brainer there.

33:05 DA: Yeah.

33:06 KF: That's amazing. So that system alone though, that's a smack in the forehead. That seems way too simple, and I can see how that could have an impact. And it's just going that extra step.

33:19 DA: Yeah. And there's so much more you can do. If you have limited time offers or special offers, or if you have a special VIP club or anything like that, or one of those benefits clubs for high-level clients that wanna get access to even more elite perks, benefits at less prices or whatnot, a loyalty program, rewards program, anything like that, who better to market that to than you're raving fans? So you can connect special offers, royalty programs, loyalty programs, all that stuff, to your raving fans segregated list as well.

34:00 KF: Now, Doren, you have quite a few things going on. You have a... This isn't just your only gig. You mentioned Power of Choice Coaching, True Trust Marketing. You have My Testimonial Engine. What has you super excited right now, either something you're working on or something that you see coming down the line in the future? It could be in the digital marketing world or in a specific industry where you're just like, "This is coming, and I cannot wait. I'm licking my lips and ready to go."

34:33 DA: You know what, I've always been fired up about learning. I love to learn. I have a practice where I exercise in the morning, and while my hands are busy, my mind is free. I call it "learn while I burn," so I get to hit two birds with one stone and fill my mind with inspiration, motivation, education while I'm exercising. And so I don't feel that I have a particular enthusiasm anchor point to one particular project, 'cause every day I get the opportunity to create breakthroughs in people's lives. Every day I get an opportunity to learn. Every day I have an opportunity to serve. Every day I have an opportunity to become a better version of myself. So, to me, it's all just juice for me to be able to show up in the morning, show up all day, and serve and make a difference. And as I learn more, I get to give more. And the more I give, the more I can serve. And the more I serve, the more I can create breakthroughs. So, for me, that's what I'm most excited about, is helping people create breakthroughs in a more significant transformative way and making a ripple effect in the world that has me leave a wake that I can look back at, one people can look back at when I'm six feet under and know that my life made a difference.

35:44 KF: I love it. And hopefully our audience got a little breakthrough today on how they can better leverage use of reviews and turn that into profit nectars. Is that what you called it?

35:57 DA: Yeah, profit-producing nectar, baby.

[laughter]

36:01 KF: Perfect.

36:02 JJ: Profit-producing nectar, I love it. Hey, Doren, if you have one piece of parting advice for our listening audience, what would that be?

36:07 DA: I'd say, you wanna supercharge your sales, you wanna take your sales to a whole other level? Look at where people need to trust you. Chances are, at every point in your funnel or any point in the courting process, taking someone from a suspect to a prospect, prospect to a client, client to an evangelist, they're needing to have more trust, they're needing an injection of trust. And the more you can inject trust at those strategic touch points in your client life cycle, the faster you're gonna be able to condense timeframes, so you can turn a suspect, to a prospect, to a client, to an evangelist. From that whole sequence or pathway, you can condense it from taking nine months or three months down to literally nine days or three days, if you inject strategic trust. And there's nothing more powerful when it comes to building trust than third party endorsement. Reviews, referrals, you can write articles for platforms that are trusted, and that gives you trusted positioning as an authority, as an expert, anything that has third party endorsement or even implied third party endorsement can massively boost the trust factor. And when you have more trust, you have more sales. Simple as that.

37:23 JJ: Very, very good. Very good advice. That's awesome. Hey what is the best way for our listeners to get in touch with you?

37:29 DA: Well I've put together a special little gift for your audience listening here.

37:33 JJ: Beautiful.

37:34 DA: 'Cause I figured you guys would want to take this idea of trust and find a way to build your business at the speed of trust, and have a vehicle by which to do that. And I figured I'd hook you up with something real special to make that easy for you. I have a...

37:48 JJ: Thank you, sir.

37:49 DA: A tool called the Ultimate Testimonial Toolkit, and it's got all kinds of checklists, and tools, and templates, swipe and deploy, review, request templates, and scripts, and it even has that magic wand letter that I talked about in a customizable Word document so you can just plug and play. And all of that is absolutely free, complimentary. All you have to do to grab it is go to this URL, mytestimonialengine.com/ngf. That's mytestimonialengine.com/ngf, and that, gentlemen, is an acronym for your stuff, Neon Goldfish. So, NGF will get you there.

38:32 KF: Perfect.

38:33 JJ: Beautiful. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Thank you very much for that. A ton of incredible value today, Neon Nation. We hope you enjoyed our conversation today with Doren. Be sure to go over and check out mytestimonialengine.com/ngf. As always, the show notes from today will be available at neongoldfish.com/podcast. Until next time, this is Justin, Ken and Doren signing off. Neon Noise Nation, we will see you again next week.

[music]

39:04 S1: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Neon Noise Podcast. Did you enjoy the podcast? If so, please subscribe, share with a friend, or write a review. We wanna cover the topics you wanna hear. If you have an idea for a topic you'd like Justin and Ken to cover, connect with us on Twitter, @neongoldfish, or through our website at neongoldfish.com.

Neon Goldfish is an Inbound Marketing Agency with locations in Orlando, Florida and Holland, Ohio